You're Still The One
by Chelsea Oz
Summary: The new and improved version of the story that started my family saga! Roll with the changes and enjoy!


It was Sam and Diane's thirtieth wedding anniversary and it was a nice quiet day for the both of them. Their three children would be over that Saturday for an overdue get together. Their two sons, Spencer and Ernie were married with children of their own. Sam and Diane couldn't have been anymore delighted with their precious grandchildren. They made them feel young again for they were so much fun. Their daughter, Elizabeth, was finishing up her last year of law school. She, like her mother, was the intellectual with the heart of gold. Sam liked to say both his wife and daughter were blessed with both the left and right sides of their brain.

The late autumn sun was about to set and Diane had walked into the living room and peeped out the window. Sam was still sitting in the swing on the porch with a sweater wrapped around him as the nights were now chilly. She knew he was thinking of her though. How could he not? She died twenty years ago on this very day. That was when she sighed and walked over to the tv stand where they had kept photo albums of their children in chronological order. Right in the middle of Ernie and Elizabeth was Maria. All Diane had to do was look at her baby girl within the heart on the cover and just let it all out.

_She was five years old and had wandered away from their vacation home on the Cape to go for a swim. It may have been autumn, but it was expieriencing a record heat wave that year and she loved the water and hated to be under parental supervision. She was the mischevious tomboy; the little devil with angel eyes that you couldn't help but fall in love with. Diane was still in the house nursing baby Elizabeth and Sam was helping the boys get ready for some beach ball fun when their friendly neighbor had called them. She told them that she saw Maria head in and was having trouble staying afloat. Her husband jumped in to go get her but she must have slipped under the current._

_Diane had jumped up, put Elizabeth back in the crib and called for Sam to come with her because Maria was in trouble. When they got to the beach, they saw the neighbor's husband carry her body out of the water and Diane just knew she was gone. She asked him to bring her over to them and they took turns cradling their deceased daughter in shock and despair._

"Look at our beautiful girl," Sam says softly putting his hand on her shoulder. "She looks just like you."

"I will always feel honored to be her mother," Diane says looking up at her husband, genuinely touched by his comment. "I just wish with all my heart she could have stayed here a little longer..."

She could barely get the last sentence out before the sobs broke out again. Sam picks her up by the shoulders and hugs her tight. He never could get used to her crying. He still hated it after all these years but he made sure she knew that she could count on him to hold her until she stopped.

"I'm so proud of us," he said kissing her hair and still hanging on. "You know, I bet'cha a lot of marriages would fall apart after the death of one of their children, but here we are. I think Maria made me a better husband."

"You were always a great husband," she says looking up at him with tear stained eyes.

"You were always a great wife."

"I love you."

"I love you."

"I'll put Maria's book back," she says breaking away from Sam's strong yet gentle arms. While she was doing that, Sam had turned the radio to the oldies station. Van Morrison's "Moondance" had been put on full blast. Diane couldn't help but be reminded of the night he had come back to her. When Diane lost Maria, Sam had grown so cold towards her, that she feared she was going to lose him, too, and that was the hardest part for her. She needed him more in those first very vulnerable days than she ever needed anyone. As they rocked back and forth in their living room, she remembered how they rocked back and forth on the porch all those years ago, swaying underneath the harvest moon. The unity of their bodies and souls created a moondance so supernatural that it could only come from their own natural chemistry.

"There is something very supernatural about our love," Diane blurted out, interrupting the flow of the song.

"That's because I've always been a superfreak," Sam ribs.

"And I've always been a very kinky girl," Diane laughs as she kisses his cheek. "Oh, Sam, we're a tough couple. Tough times don't last, but tough couples like us do."


End file.
